1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a shoulder adjuster and, more particularly, to a shoulder adjuster of the type to be attached to the center pillar of an automobile for adjusting the height or level of a belt anchor for anchoring a seat belt.
2. Related Art
An ordinary automobile is equipped with a seat belt for protecting a passenger in an emergency such as collision by restricting him on the seat.
In case the passenger's body is to be restricted by the seat belt, the portion of the body is required to have a high strength so that it can stand a load which would grow several ten times as high as the weight of the body. Therefore, a wrap belt is desired to wrap the hipbone without fail, and a shoulder belt is desirably positioned between the shoulder joint and the neck.
The passenger or an object to be restricted has a large difference in individual sizes from kids to adults, and the adjustment of seat position of the passenger is also different for the individuals. In order to cope with these differences, a shoulder adjuster to be used for adjusting the height of the belt anchor of the shoulder belt can have its slider attached to a guide rail and retained on the guide rail at a predetermined pitch and its belt-anchor attached to the slider. Incidentally, there is known in the art a guide rail which is shaped into a long plate so as to maximize the compartment space of an automobile.
In the prior shoulder adjuster, as described above, the slider is equipped with a cylindrical member protruded into the compartment so that it may have the belt anchor attached thereto, and this cylindrical member has its inner circumference internally threaded to receive a belt for mounting the belt anchor.
If the cylindrical member is thus protruded from the slider into the compartment, the belt anchor accordingly projects into the compartment to narrow the compartment space.